Incumbent candidates won all of Maui County Council's nine seats in Tuesday’s election.
West Maui’s Tamara Paltin will continue to represent her district. Longtime councilmember Alice Lee from the Wailuku-Waiheʻe-Waikapū district won reelection, while Tasha Kama will continue to represent Kahului.
Nohe U’u-Hodgins will keep serving the Makawao-Haʻikū-Pāʻia area, along with Yuki Lei Sugimura for Upcountry Maui. Keani Rawlins-Fernandez will continue to represent Moloka’i.
East Maui councilmember Shane Sinenci and Lāna’i councilmember Gabe Johnson both ran unopposed.
The closest Maui council race was for the South Maui seat, between incumbent Tom Cook and former Maui County councilmember Kelly King. Cook ultimately edged out King with a lead of just .2%, or 117 votes. An automatic recount won’t take place; that would be triggered if the margin was less than or equal to 100 votes or .25% of the total votes cast, whichever is lesser.
The results for most of these seats showed at least 20% blank votes, indicating between one-fifth and one-quarter of voters did not fill out their ballots for these candidates.
